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ebay changing search categories
Why does ebay change my search categories from all categories to what they want? This is a pain in the ass!!! This limits what I what I get to see. Stop changing what I want to see !! I want to chose my categories, not ebay. I hope ebay reads this because this sucks! FIX THIS!
12 comments
kh-vince
·2 years agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
lux.ra_14
·3 years agoFound an item I was thinking of buying. Put it on a watchlist and then did a search to compare prices from other sellers. eBay returned its "streamlined" results that actually left out a lot of comparable items, including the very item I had just shown interest in as a watcher.
Search is what it is. I just accept that I often have to search more than once, in more than one way.
caracy
·3 years agoI have certain saved searches that include a totally unrelated category. That way ebay says. "we couldn't find any ______ in Camera and Photo so we searched All Categories" Gee thanks. THAT'S what I wanted to do in the first place! Just note that as soon as you go to page 2, it reverts to the redirect, so its only good for the first 240 listings.
eburtonlab
·3 years agoas you go to page 2, it reverts to the redirect, so its only good for the first 240 listings.
You may be able to avoid this redirection, though not without side effects of eliminating any possible keyword substitutions. But at least that will allow you to see more than 240 results.
You can avoid the automatic category navigation by using a search command such as an exclusion term (a keyword preceded by a minus sign to exclude results with that term) or by enclosing one of your search terms in quotes.
consolidate_72
·3 years agoI agree this is incredibly annoying. eBay has some of the worst search shennanigens on the internet.
What's more aggregious, though, is that they screw with your Saved Searches. Sometimes after like 6 months, they will change your saved search to be a different category when it was explicity set to all categories. AND, to go a step further, they will screw with your saved searches by literally changing the text input of your SAVED SEARCH! This is done under the guise of a recommendation or something, thinking they know better than you about what and how to search. Give me a break. Just keep it simple, eBay.
jon-to7
·3 years agoAgree, the new search is a total **bleep**. I wonder what **bleep** morin thought of this dumb **bleep** thing.
Forced category changes have resulted in a 2.3% increase in sales (on affected items) and a 4.1% increase in search satisfaction.
applkart
·2 years agoWhat is the $ amount percentage in revenue lost by not including items that may have been listed in a different, but more general category? It won’t show up when people search for that item because it only shows items listed in that specific category? Seller loses.. eBay losses… buyers miss out on items eBay won’t show
reallyhardtofind
·3 years agoAgreed it horrible
eburtonlab
·3 years agoWhy does ebay change my search categories from all categories to what they want?
eBay figures by doing this, on average, most users are better able to find and purchase what they are looking for, rather than having to search through a lot of items that are not relevant to the original search. So eBay makes more money that way.
Most questions about why eBay does something can be answered the same way.
Searches are steered into categories based on the keywords used in the search, using the data about what sorts of items were ultimately viewed and purchased by others using the same keywords in their searches in the past.
If you do not want your search steered into a particular category, you have a couple of options.
If you notice your search has been steered into a particular category, you can select "All categories" in the drop-down to the right of the search bar, and immediately search again. If you are using a bookmarked or saved search, bookmark or save the new "All categories" search to replace the old search.
You can also avoid the automatic category navigation by using a search command such as an exclusion term (a keyword preceded by a minus sign to exclude results with that term) or by enclosing one of your search terms in quotes. This will also prevent keyword substitution of any of your keywords, so keep that in mind when using those types of searches.
ittybitnot
·3 years agoWhy does ebay change my search categories from all categories to what they want?
@jo2-bear
eBay has been using this 'forced category navigation' for quite some time. It is intended to direct a buyer to a category that is more likely to produce SALES, and elect to not show others. At one time I remember they used to also suggest it was used to limit 'buyer confusion' when too many items were presented. I don't think they really use that reason any longer when every listing contains 99 or so promoted listings by others causing a visual overload for a buyer.
mudshark61369
·3 years ago@jo2-bear,
Certain searches will default to a category from All Categories. If you look before clicking on the Search button, you can reset the category to All Categories if you want. If the all categories search returns too many extraneous items, when you find an item you want open the listing and look under the title for the categories it is listed in, that will reset the search to that category.